The Best Bike Helmet for Commuters

The Specialized Echelon II remains our top choice for most commuters, but some new helmets made it into our lineup this year.

The Specialized Echelon II remains our top choice for most commuters, but some new helmets made it into our lineup this year.

The Smith Portal is our runner-up choice, thanks to its comfortable, well-dialed fit and crowd pleasing aesthetics. The Bontrager Solstice is our new budget pick. Its updated profile, great fit, and excellent crash warranty make it the best value we’ve found.

Your guide

Eve O'Neill

Since 2015, we’ve interviewed helmet designers and safety experts, examined more than 70 helmets, and tested 21 in person to determine that the classic Specialized Echelon II is the best bike helmet for commuters. Its superior straps and adjustment system make it easy to dial in a perfect fit. And it’s one of only four helmets sold in the US that’s impact-tested and certified by Snell, one of the most trustworthy third-party labs in the country.

Buying Options

The Specialized Echelon II has safety and comfort-improving features unique in its price range, including an adjustable harness that wraps fully around the head for even pressure distribution. The chin straps are less fussy than any others we tried, and our testing panel of more than 10 agreed its ventilation is as effective as that of much more expensive models with larger cooling vents. This year’s model has a slightly rounder back than the one our panel initially tested, and that’s a good thing. Ever since Greg Lemond won the Tour de France in 1989 wearing a Giro Aerohead, the tail has been an inescapable presence in helmet design, even though it offers no performance benefits for anyone cycling slower than 35 mph (all of us). Worse yet, some experts suggest that a tail is actively hazardous in the event of a crash since it can potentially snag on the pavement and tear the helmet off.

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Runner-up

Buying Options

Although the Smith Portal lacks the Snell certification and established track record of the Echelon, the Portal won testers over with its attractive matte monochrome finish and excellent fit. (It has the legally required CPSC certification.) It feels low and secure on the head without the extra bulk of a big piece of foam on the back. The Portal abandons the look of helmet “tails” almost entirely, instead rounding out the back, making it smooth and slidable. There is no exposed EPS foam on the exterior—not even on the underside—an upgrade in quality that should protect it from abuse. Although the Portal model we recommend lacks built-in MIPS anti-concussion technology, the tech is available at a hefty premium if you want it. (We don’t suggest upgrading because it’s not yet clear whether MIPS actually prevents concussions.)

Buying Options

If you don’t bike that often, or if you don’t mind a thicker, less-ventilated design, save a few bucks and get the Bontrager Solstice. It’s the most affordable helmet that hits all our standards for fit, including multiple size options and a dial-in adjustment mechanism. Atypical of this price range (but standard among costlier helmets, such as our other picks), the Solstice is made through in-mold construction. This means the plastic shell is fused to the protective foam liner, instead of taped or glued, resulting in a stronger helmet. In addition, Bontrager offers one of the best crash replacement policies we found: The company will replace your helmet for free if you hit your head while wearing it up to a year after purchase. The Solstice also comes in a more expensive MIPS configuration, but again, we don’t yet have reason to believe it’s worth the premium.

Why you should trust us

Helmet designer John Larkin at work in his studio. Photo: John Larkin

We spoke with many helmet-industry experts for this guide, including leading designers and lab technicians who have been crash testing for years. And we wanted to learn about helmet aesthetics, too. If everyone keeps complaining that they feel stupid in a helmet, must we keep making helmets in ridiculous shapes?

So we talked to John Larkin, the president of Machine Language. Larkin is an industrial designer, and his specialty is bike helmets. If you’ve shopped around recently, maybe you’ve seen the Thousand helmet—he created that shape. He also designed the Giro Reverb and at least a dozen other recognizable profiles.

Next, I spoke to Isis Shiffer, inventor of EcoHelmet, which won the 2016 James Dyson Award for design. The EcoHelmet is a foldable helmet made of paper—yes, paper. It’s a conceptual design awaiting CPSC certification; the idea is that city commuters could purchase them out of a vending machine. Shiffer is definitely an expert on what is essential to head protection and what’s not.

Via email, I interviewed Bjork Fjellstad, the managing director at Sweet Protection, a Norway-based performance brand. They are advocates for MIPS, a new helmet safety tech. (We’re not yet convinced you need MIPS to stay safe, so don’t run out and replace your helmet just yet.)

We also got design insight from Jon Raymer, the bike category manager at Smith (the company that made our runner-up pick), and Steve Johnson, the laboratory manager at the Snell Memorial Foundation, an independent helmet testing lab that helped establish the certification procedures currently used by the CPSC. He patiently answered our questions about tiny differences in crash testing procedures.

Me, I’m a senior staff writer at Wirecutter, and my beat has been outdoors safety equipment for years. But the real reason you should trust me is that I’m a believer. Whether or not you want to wear a bike helmet is pretty much up to you.1 But speaking for myself—well, I’ve been hit by a car twice. One of those times, I landed head first on the squared-off edge of a concrete curb. My helmet likely saved my life.

Who this is for

This is a guide for commuters—people who bike for utility and transportation. For a long time, helmets specifically for commuters haven’t really existed. Instead, we’ve had hand-me-down designs meant for other kinds of riders.

Our picks also work well for casual recreational road cyclists since the same features that make a great commuter helmet (great ventilation and safety features, in particular) make for a great road helmet as well. Racers chasing podium spots, however, would likely prefer a lighter, more expensive design than any of our picks can offer.

Ever since Greg Lemond won the Tour de France in 1989 wearing a Giro Aerohead, the average cyclist has not been able to escape the aerodynamic design of racing helmets meant to decrease wind resistance. In the ‘90s, “venting got larger while long overhanging rear ‘tails’ became common,” says Larkin. But for anyone cycling slower than 35 mph (all commuters and casual riders), those tails don’t do anything. It’s just a style, and shapes that protrude from helmets could possibly cause a neck injury in a crash.

Here, a helmet style that mimics the aero design, what Larkin likes to refer to as ‘‘medieval warlord styling.” Photo: José Rodriguez

This is the 2018 version of the Giro Aerohead. The original became an iconic shape that influenced the next 25 years of helmet design. Photo: Giro

Here, a helmet style that mimics the aero design, what Larkin likes to refer to as ‘‘medieval warlord styling.” Photo: José Rodriguez

This is the 2018 version of the Giro Aerohead. The original became an iconic shape that influenced the next 25 years of helmet design. Photo: Giro

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Meanwhile, some cyclists adopted skateboard helmets, but these were (and remain) an imperfect compromise. Skate helmets are multi-impact helmets, designed to let you clobber yourself over and over again at low force. Bike helmets, however, are intended to be single use only. If you suffer one gnarly, high speed hit, the helmet’s interior foam crumples to absorb the impact—and then you replace the helmet. There are dual-certified skate helmets—that is, certified for bike riding as well as skating—but that design still doesn’t serve the commuter well. The ABS plastic shells of those helmets are heavy, and the unvented silhouettes induce sweat.

Skateboard helmets are nice and round, ideal for a commuter, but heavy and poorly ventilated. Photo: José Rodriguez

But now, as recently as this year, the road helmet and the skate helmet are merging into something resembling the best option for a street commuter—a rounded, vented hybrid.

Our budget pick, the Bontrager Solstice, steals the best parts of both designs for commuters. The rounded shape combined with more ventilation is ideal for utility riding in a suburb or city. Photo: Eve O’Neill

“Designers are returning to smoother, simpler, less vented shapes with short rear overhangs,” said Larkin. Indeed, all the updated helmets we looked at had done away with those tails and rounded out the backs of their designs.

We read up on new findings from another lab at Virginia Tech, which is pioneering a way to test both linear and rotational forces in helmets (very dramatic news in the world of cycling helmets). Finally, we consulted helmets.org, the website of the Bicycle Safety Helmet Institute, a non-profit helmet advocacy group comprising volunteers who serve on ASTM International, a global standards development organization. ASTM, along with Snell, created the standards for crash test procedure the CPSC uses today.

After all that research, we came up with the criteria each helmet we decided to test had to meet:

It has to be certified by the CPSC. In the US, every helmet design must pass the CPSC’s crash tests, and there will be a sticker on the inside of every helmet made of that model if it passes. Nothing can be sold that hasn’t passed, so you should be able to walk into any store in the US and know that any helmet on the shelves will be CPSC-certified. However, be wary of online purchases from unknown sources. If there is no way to vet whether the helmet has been certified, avoid it. (This issue is real. In 2014, one entrepreneurial citizen bought some counterfeit helmets that were not, it turns out, able to pass safety testing, labelled as such highly recognizable brands as Specialized, Giro, and Catlike, and sold them on eBay at deep discounts. Shiffer told me a disturbing story about her helmet, which relies upon a patented honeycomb structure to protect against impact. The problem is, not all honeycomb shapes can withstand force. “A Chinese company did a bunch of knock-offs, and they were non-functional. If somebody actually gets into a crash with this thing [that is, the knock-off version], it’s like wearing a sponge on your head. It won’t do anything. It’s super scary.” So look for the sticker, and don’t buy an unfamiliar brand [or even a familiar brand from a suspect source]. Better yet, go to your local shop and get your helmet there.)

What a CPSC certification sticker looks like. Photo: Eve O’Neill

According to both the CPSC and Snell, a helmet must fit properly to work properly, yet another reason to go to a store. To that end, an adjustable retention system is a smart investment. These are what you’ll find on helmets with the dial on the back, as opposed to helmets with only elastic fit systems, like a sweatpants waistband. “Elastic doesn’t do a damn thing, I don’t really get the point of that,” says Schiffer. “If it stretches it’s not gonna keep it right on your head where it goes.”

As fit is vitally important for protection, we only considered helmets available in two or more sizes. There is also something called “universal sizing,” which means the helmet comes in only one size, as opposed to small, medium, or large. Many helmets that cost less than $40 have just one size.

We rode in all the helmets during testing, but to initially gauge ventilation, we just looked at them. Many people I interviewed said ventilation was one of their major concerns—no one likes a sweaty head. So bigger holes and more holes are each better… to a point. Whittle away too much and the form might break apart.That’s why highly ventilated helmets are expensive—the maker had to find a way to keep the foam in one piece. We noted airflow in our testing, but we didn’t worry too much about higher-end, more expensive, “more ventilated” designs. I’d learned from John Larkin, the industrial designer, that how well we think a helmet ventilates, especially when it comes to extremely large and elongated holes, is mostly psychological:“A lot of design effort has gone into developing ‘cooling channels’ and ‘cooling tunnels’ to make helmets breathe better,” he told me. “The fact remains, however, that helmet foam is an ideal insulating material—the exact same material used in ice chests—and will always be hotter than no helmet. When deciding to buy a helmet, ‘perception of ventilation’ probably has as much influence as anything else, and expensive helmets tend to have more and larger vents which contribute to that perception.”

Finally, in-mold construction is the “dominant technology” of helmets, says Larkin, “wherein the thin plastic shell is fused to the outside of the cushioning foam.” Helmets made by taping or gluing on the shell onto the foam still exist, but the benefits of in-mold are significant. You get lighter, stronger helmets because the plastic is now part of the structure that absorbs impact, instead of just a cover for the foam.

A helmet that meets these baseline criteria—CPSC-certified, adjustable fit system, sizing options, adequate venting and in-mold construction—costs $65-$70. When you spend more, you’re paying for incremental feature upgrades or a specific type of design, such as an extremely lightweight helmet or a trendy shape.

The following weren’t requirements but were some other considerations we made while choosing which helmets to test and, sometimes, when we got our hands on them:

We took sliding resistance into account. Helmet shape is not evaluated by any testing methodology. When the CPSC approves a helmet for sale, shape is not considered at all. And that seems weird, because we found many experts with strong feelings that helmets should be round.Their concern is that protruding helmet parts could catch on the ground, wrenching the head to the side in a crash and causing neck injury. This theory is a point of contention, though, in the design world, because no field evidence of this happening exists. Still, many people I spoke to believe that round helmets seem like a good idea. Bjorn Fjellstad at Sweet Protection agreed, writing via email, “The surface needs to be sleek and clean to be able to slide off the ground upon impact.” Shiffer said, “One of the reasons a lot of helmets have smooth covers is so that if you do happen to land directly on your head, you’re going to slide along the ground and are less likely to get a traumatic neck injury.” And 15 years ago, Hugh Hurt, president of the Head Protection Research Lab at USC, sent a memo to ASTM expressing his concern that “accident impacts at the rear of these streamlined helmets can cause the helmet to rotate away and expose the head to injury, or eject the helmet completely.”

Foam and fabric on the outside of a helmet can also present sliding problems. Cloth on the outside of bike helmets is rare, if not completely obsolete, but “exposed foam can ‘snag’ on impact, increasing the rotational and deceleration forces,” says Larkin. “It is thought that sliding is better than snagging for reducing head injury in a crash.”

Chin straps are annoying if they get tangled or slide around, and dangerous if they become loose while riding. So we considered the quality of the plastic sliders, the buckle, and how the webbing was integrated into the helmet.

Crash replacement is something many companies offer, to encourage you to replace a helmet that might have been damaged in a crash (often, you can’t see how an impact may have compressed the foam under the shell, making it useless). If you get in a crash, some will sell you a new helmet at a discount. However, those discounts range wildly, anywhere from 20 percent off retail to 100 percent (free), and the number of hoops you have to jump through fluctuates, too. Unless a deal is particularly good, you may not find it worth including this policy in your calculations, as past-season models of helmets (often, the only change is in the colors) are always on sale. But we compared the fine print for every brand we tested because a decent crash policy could benefit a commuter.

Often, if a helmet has survived an impact, you can’t see how the foam has been damaged underneath the plastic cover. In this helmet cross-section, a small crack is revealed. Photo: Eve O’Neill

Finally, looks. Getting a helmet you think looks good is not stupid, it’s extremely important. Dorky helmeting is anathema to humanity—we can’t stand looking like mushroom heads. So if our picks don’t appeal to you, buy something you do like instead, as long as you’ll wear it. The only way a certified, well-fitting helmet can fail to perform its duty is if it’s not on your head.

How we tested

Photo: José Rodriguez

The best way to test a bike helmet is to use it. Our writer for the first iteration of this guide, Matthew Edwards, took 13 helmets out for hilly rides in Portland with a panel of 10 people, in what he reports as weird weather for May, “with lots of rain, lots of sun, and temperature swings between 40 and 80 °F at times.” They examined ventilation, comfort, extra features, and discussed the finer points of looks and fit.

For our second iteration of this piece, I called in 10 new helmets, including 4 new-for-2018 models, and took them out for rides with a panel of 6 in my hometown, Pittsburgh. Also: lots of bikes, good beer, and nearly identical temperamental weather—rain, sun, storms, snow, and temperature swings between 40 and 80 °F.

Buying Options

The Specialized Echelon II is our top pick, and it’s a lot of helmet for what you pay. This helmet was crash tested by both the CPSC and Snell. No other brand that makes helmets for the US market has their products certified to both standards. It also has design upgrades that other helmets at this price don’t have, upgrades that result in a snug and comfortable fit, which all our sources indicate is the most important thing to consider when buying a helmet.

A Snell certification doesn’t make a helmet “more safe” than one certified from the CPSC. But it does offer a heightened level of quality control, performed by experts in their field, whose research is not funded by helmet companies. The type of certification that Snell gave the Echelon is B-90A, and there are currently only four adult helmets sold in the US that were certified that way. They’re all made by Specialized.

On this helmet, the fit system wraps only as far as the temples. Photo: Eve O’Neill

Look parallel to the red arrow, and you can see the fit system inside the Echelon wrap fully around the inside of the helmet. This creates a highly tailored fit. Photo: Eve O’Neill

On this helmet, the fit system wraps only as far as the temples. Photo: Eve O’Neill

Look parallel to the red arrow, and you can see the fit system inside the Echelon wrap fully around the inside of the helmet. This creates a highly tailored fit. Photo: Eve O’Neill

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But all the crash testing in the world doesn’t matter if the helmet doesn’t fit properly. For this reason, we only tested helmets that have adjustable retention systems. Unlike other helmets that cost the same, the Echelon fit system wraps all the way around your head, one of only two in our test pool to do so. All the others attach at the temples. This way, the pressure is distributed around the head evenly, regardless of head shape. The temple-attachment systems we’ve seen in some other helmets will still work, but this “halo” system is an upgrade.

Our testers universally agreed the ventilation on the Echelon worked well—no one got sweaty on their rides—and all Echelon helmets now come with a “Hairport” fit system, which means the helmet leaves more space in the back to allow anyone with a ponytail to pull their hair through. Though ponytail ports often come on the “women’s” versions of helmets, consider this: the ponytail port was invented at the equestrian helmet maker Troxel in the ‘90s by a male designer for his ponytail.

The adjustment piece on the strap under the ear is fixed into one position on the Echelon. Other helmets have sliding adjusters, which are annoying to adjust and can creep loose. Photo: Rozette Rago

The chin strap on the Echelon also differs from the others we tested. There are no adjusting sliders, clearly an attempt to save us from the mild antagonism of finicky adjustments. Specialized does away with them entirely, instead fixing the straps along the side of your face in a static position, and, perhaps counterintuitively, our testers found them really comfortable. It put the Echelon a step ahead of a close competitor, the Bell Formula, whose chin straps seem like an afterthought on an otherwise stellar product.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Specialized offers a crash replacement policy, but it’s lackluster compared to the free-replacement policy offered by some competitors like Bontrager. Any Specialized dealer will give you 20 percent off retail price of a new helmet if you bring in your old one. This applies to any helmet up to 3 years old. However, you’re likely to find a past season’s helmet on sale at a deeper discount.

As comfortable as our testers found them, the fixed chin straps won’t work for all people all of the time. Plus the inability to adjust it underneath your chin means that when you’re standing upright, off the bike, it can feel a bit chokey. Not dealbreaker chokey—maybe you would never have noticed it if we hadn’t said anything. But it’s clearly designed to sit most comfortably while you’re riding your bike, neck stretched out, gracefully turtling into the wind. As always, try before you buy.

Runner-up: Smith Portal

Photo: Rozette Rago

Runner-up

Buying Options

If our top pick is sold out—or if you just don’t like its looks—try the Smith Portal. It fits and ventilates as well made as our top pick. It’s not Snell-certified; however, that shouldn’t be a dealbreaker because hardly any helmets are. The standout quality of the Portal is how carefully the exterior is crafted. And that also includes color. More than one person picked this helmet out of the pile because of its refreshing lack of art— you know, like vector prints or swooshes or graphics to make the helmet look “fast.” Our riders praised the fit system, which imparted a feeling like the helmet is sinking onto your head rather than floating on top of it.

The exterior is rounder than most other well-ventilated helmets we found, and the EPS foam isn’t exposed anywhere on the exterior of the helmet. Both of those are good things. Photo: Rozette Rago

The designers incorporated everything currently considered modern in helmet design. First, they made the helmet’s shape rounder, leaving few ridges or foam parts sticking out. Second, the plastic shell fully encases the foam, even along the underside, an area that is often left exposed. In addition to looking cleaner, it can prevent the foam from getting damaged, scraped, dinged, and generally looking like junk after you scrape it along the ground 100 times while locking it to your bike.

The fit of the helmet stood out to testers—they commented that the Portal felt like it was well seated and not that it was riding high on their heads. Photo: Rozette Rago

Our testers really like the internal fit system, though at first glance it looks somewhat flimsy. The piece in back that holds the dial appears to protrude far from under the helmet—so far that it might get damaged. So we took it outside and smashed it against the concrete a bunch of times. Nothing happened, it just bounced back. We’ve seen no complaints online about the dial, but then, this helmet is brand new, so there aren’t many reviews at all yet. We’ll keep using the helmet and see how the dial lasts. As of now, we have no reason to doubt its durability.

Photo: Rozette Rago

The chin straps on the Portal are refined, as you would expect for this price. They’re well-oriented and secured to the sides of the helmet (so no webbing all up and everywhere through the interior of the helmet), and they have locking slide adjusters. The closest competitor to the Portal, the Giro Savant, falls behind when comparing the quality of the chin straps.

You can get this helmet in a MIPS version, but it costs $30 more, which is highway robbery. We compared MIPS upcharges across brands, and $20 is standard. (Maybe you won’t sweat the extra $10, but at least now you know.) Also, Smith has a crash replacement policy that extends up to two years after purchase and gives 30 percent off the retail price. You need your receipt, though, and you’ll have to ship the damaged helmet back to them at your own expense.

Buying Options

Our favorite inexpensive helmet is the Bontrager Solstice. It’s not the least expensive helmet you can find, but it’s a significant and noticeable upgrade over anything that sells for less. Its fit is more customizable, the profile looks less like the head of Alien, and build quality goes up—and all of these things influence safety. And significantly, Bontrager has the second-best crash-replacement policy in the biz—they’ll replace the helmet for free up to a year after you buy it. The Solstice lacks the overall refinement of our top two picks, but otherwise there’s very little not to like.

An adjustable fit system, with a dial, is an worthwhile upgrade. Photo: Eve O’Neill

The Solstice is the least expensive helmet that was able to meet our baseline criteria for fit and construction. Most cheap helmets are one-size-fits-all and often have elastic retention systems instead of the more secure dial system. The Solstice comes in two sizes, it has an adjustable fit system, and incidentally, it can adjust vertically as well if you need it to sit lower on your occipital (the back part of your head). This is a given on more expensive helmets—all of our picks do this—but it’s not a given on the lower end. Its sizing options and adjustment system make the Solstice stand out.

Experts believe a helmet with a round shape may be a benefit, as it allows the helmet to slide along the ground more easily. Photo: Eve O’Neill

The profile is also an upgrade over those of cheaper models. The back has been rounded out—this is a growing trend in city riding, and experts believe that a helmet that can slide more easily on the ground may prevent neck injury. The Solstice is also constructed in-mold, another of our basic requirements of a quality helmet. When the plastic is fused to the foam, instead of taped or glued, the helmet is stronger.

EPS foam exposed on the outer sliding plane of this helmet could, in theory, snag on the ground. It’s better to have that foam covered. Photo: Eve O’Neill

A lot of helmets have foam that isn’t covered—even our top pick. But as long as that foam is recessed below the protective shell, it won’t snag on the ground. A sure sign of a cheap helmet is if it has any amount of foam on the exterior that could make contact with the pavement, and Solstice doesn’t have any, yet another improvement over our former budget pick, the Schwinn Thrasher, which has several inches of foam along the sides that isn’t covered.

The ventilation works, though not as well as that of our top picks—the helmet walls are pretty robust, too, adding to the sweat factor—and the chin straps are nothing special. At the time of writing, you have to pay $25 for the MIPS version—more than the standard $20 upcharge.

Another highlight is Bontrager’s generous crash replacement policy. Again: they’ll replace your helmet. For free. The one drawback is the relatively short window of opportunity—one year. But should you get into an accident in that time frame, you get basically a two-for-one deal.

What is MIPS?

Photo: Rozette Rago

There are a lot of ways you can traumatize your head. You could fracture your skull, suffer a bruise or puncture wound, or get a concussion, and each injury is not the same. Helmets can help mitigate skull fractures, because they absorb impact. But as of this time, “helmets can’t prevent concussions,” as Wirecutter deputy editor Dan Koeppel wrote while reporting on brain trauma last year for Outside magazine.

If you’ve been keeping up with the evolving dialogue over concussion prevention, this is why it’s such a huge topic: It’s a type of brain damage that we have not figured out how to prevent, something that not even helmets can stop, and we’re starting to see the debilitating long-term impacts, as was the case with BMX rider Dave Mirra, the subject of Koeppel’s piece. He died by suicide, an act that family and doctors have attributed to the degenerative brain disease CTE, caused by repetitive brain trauma.

“Concussion occurs when the brain moves,” says one of Koeppel’s sources, Jeffrey Kutcher, a neurologist who specializes in athletic brain trauma, in the Outside article. “Whatever you have outside your skull might absorb some force, but if you get hit on the helmet by something, your brain is still going to move.”

And that’s what the engineers who are developing MIPS technology are trying to figure out—how to stop the brain from moving and therefore concussing. MIPS stands for Multi-Directional Impact Protection System. It’s a physical object, a plastic liner, that is fastened to the underside of the helmet.

That liner is supposed to move upon impact, letting the helmet slide a small amount, which in turn reduces the rotational impact forces on your brain. The hope is that it’s more like a soft catch for the brain, reducing its movement in your head, and thereby reducing the risk of concussion.

That’s the hope, anyway. There are a lot of studies on the MIPS website, and what they show is that MIPS is proven to reduce rotational force (though even that is up for debate). What they don’t show—and what we don’t know—is whether rotational force is actually the cause of concussions. As of right now, it’s just a guess.

The only way we would ever know is if we collected data from a wide variety of concussive hits, and though there is research being done in that field at the moment by Virginia Tech University, the data is brand new and needs to be studied.

Another problem is that MIPS has to be properly installed in the helmet, which a helmet company may or may not do. And even supposing it’s installed correctly, we still require convincing that it matters at all. To quote helmets.org, “We still regard MIPS as unproven technology unless you have a helmet that couples so closely to your head that you can't move it even a quarter inch. Your scalp is nature's MIPS.”

What it comes down to is that we don’t think you need to run out and replace your helmet if you have one you’re happy with. We’ve mentioned which of our picks offer a MIPS liner if you want one, but as of right now, the benefit of MIPS is unproven.

What to look forward to

Helmets with turn signals...get ready! We’d like to compare the Lumos Smart Helmet, which has built-in turn signals activated from the handlebars, to helmets covered in retroreflective material, like the Bell Falcon Ghost. Though it seems obvious that turn signals would be more visible, we’re not sure it’s so obvious. We have researched bike lights in the past that have projections and flashes and lasers that beam into eyeballs, and experts have concluded they often blend into the sea of lights and colors at any traffic stop. Maybe the Lumos will perform differently?

And in trickle-down news, Giro has just launched the new Aether helmet. It’s an elite racing helmet that costs several hundred dollars, but working together, Giro and the people at MIPS have found a way to break the helmet into two helmet-shaped pieces that nest inside each other and can slide against each other with the intention of reducing rotational forces. Rotational force tech is the biggest topic of discussion—the only topic of discussion—in helmet safety these days, yet again, we’re not so sure it works. Either way, if this design is ever implemented on less-expensive helmets, it could render the current MIPS liner obsolete.

Other helmets we like

The new-for-2018 Bell Formula came very close to being a pick. It only narrowly missed being included because the chin strap is not as nice as our top pick’s or runner-up’s. But otherwise, it’s one of the rare helmets we came across that had both lots of ventilation and a round shape, which was the ideal design we were looking for. It also has a very low profile, and testers were happy with how little it seemed to stick up above their heads. Similar to the Smith Portal, the entire exterior is wrapped in plastic and leaves no EPS foam exposed, even on the underside.

Even cheap helmets are certified to the same safety standards as every other helmet, and the Schwinn Thrasher is one of the least expensive helmets you can buy. It lacks in-mold construction, but if you want to spend the bare minimum, this helmet has an adjustable fit system, which includes a dial on the back, and a way to adjust the fit vertically, which is incredibly rare for this price.
The Thrasher used to be our budget pick, but we think the Bontrager Solstice is a much better value for just a little more money. That said, if you really don’t want to spend more than $20, the Thrasher will be better than most other options.

Our testers liked the fit of the Bell Hub, but few liked the looks—especially the pieces that come down over the front of the ears. They’re not uncomfortable; they just look funny. If you don’t mind that, the Hub has a lot more ventilation that other skate-style helmets we looked at. There are open channels along the sides of the head near the temples (the Giro Sutton is ventilated in this manner as well), and also along the top of the helmet, underneath a plastic mesh exterior that hides the holes. It has a light mount on the back and a cloth visor that can be removed, and the chin strap does not use a traditional plastic buckle, but a ratcheting buckle instead, which is easier to operate with gloved hands.

The competition

The Chamonix from Specialized hits every checkmark for quality that we have, is certified by Snell, and performed well in Virginia Tech’s tests. But it’s currently listed as unavailable.

The Specialized Propero III has replaced the Propero II and is a more expensive sibling to the Echelon. It has the same great adjustments of the Echelon and a slightly heftier price tag due to its lighter overall weight and thinner chin straps.

The Giro Savant has decent venting and updated colors that look sporty and modern. It performed well in testing in both of the years we looked at it, but just like the Bell Formula, it was weighed down by clumsy chin straps that don’t belong on a helmet of this caliber and price.

The Giro Sutton was among the first batch of commuter-oriented helmets and our 2015 testing group appreciated its styling and surprisingly effective ventilation. However, its elastic retention system isn’t as effective as the plastic ones found on this year’s picks.

We looked at the Scott Groove Plus but set it aside because of how the foam protrudes in the front to create a visor—it didn’t pass muster for slideability considerations.

The adjustment dial on the Nutcase Metroride adjusts in very large increments, much larger than the other helmets we looked at. If your best fit happens to be somewhere in between one of two clicks (like mine was), the helmet will feel either too loose or too tight. If you like the looks of this helmet, definitely try it on before buying it.

We’ve heard a lot about the Thousand helmet, mostly by word of mouth, because riders really love the look of it. However, we didn’t test it because it didn’t meet our criteria for adequate ventilation.

The Giro Revel got shining marks from most users on Amazon, REI, and Singletracks. Its downside is its Universal Adult sizing, which proved to be anything but. Multiple testers complained that they couldn’t get a comfortable fit, no matter how much time they spent with the adjustments.

The Specialized Duet was one of two women-specific helmets we tested. It seemed like a good buy, but this universal women’s fit size helmet was too small for all of our testers, even one woman with a (self-described) tiny head. We couldn’t imagine this helmet would be a good fit for anyone, regardless of gender, who would ordinarily take a medium or larger size. On top of that, the ponytail-compatible Hairport SX seemed like a good idea on paper but turned out to be a bit gimmicky. Our tester with a ponytail said she could make a helmet work with or without this feature.

The Bell Segment, with its intriguing segmented EPS foam interior, is well regarded on Amazon and TransWorld BMX. It was the only multisport helmet that made it to our testing phase. Like many skate helmets, it has no adjustment mechanism; you manipulate the fit by swapping between the included thicker or thinner foam pads. Unfortunately, it confirmed what we already suspected. Like most multisport helmets, it is heavy and breathes poorly.

The Bell Array came with good reviews from Competitivecyclist.com and Road.cc but performed poorly in testing due to uncomfortable foam sculpting and pad positioning. Many of our riders found the foam structure of the helmet poked their heads and complained about the super thick chin and yoke straps.

The Giro Reverb is well regarded by its owners—judging by reviews on Amazon and other sites— but the elastic head retention put too much pressure on some testers’ heads, leading some of them to say that they thought they’d get headaches from prolonged usage.

The Kali Chakra Plus is interesting—the makers of Kali helmets create a lot of proprietary systems when it comes to impact resistance and rotational force technologies. They also have the best crash protection policy in the business: Full replacement of the helmet if you get in a crash, with no restrictions on how long it’s been since you purchased it. Unfortunately, the fit was strange. It rode high on testers’ heads, and the adjustment dial felt flimsy compared to the one on our budget pick. One Amazon commenter brings up the awkward placement of the chin straps, and we agree with him—we’re not so concerned with the gap he mentioned, but the wobble he talks about happened to us too. There is much more lateral movement with the chin straps secured in that position.

The Bern Berkeley (women’s) and Bern Brentwood (men’s) are the company’s bestselling designs, but you’ll have to deal with a helmet that has very little ventilation. We are currently testing the Union and Parker models, which have the same shape but a lot more vents, and we will update with our take on those models soon.

Footnotes

There are some legal exceptions: Some states have youth bike helmet laws, for riders 17 and under, and a few cities and towns in various states require that all cyclists wear helmets.